Satellite equiment for someone new to satellite wo

[K3MOV]

I am interested in becoming involved in working the satellites. I am just starting out and have no equipment yet. I have an ICOM 756 Pro II for HF. What equipment would you recommend that I use to get started? I have already purchased all of the available Handbooks, etc. Money, of course, is an object to be considered, but not the main one. Tnx for your input.  
 
 

[WB2WIK]

There are so many satellites to work that this is a tough one to answer without writing a novel.

You might want to start with

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/intro/faqs.html

That's a good resource to recently published material relating to satellite operations, and within some of that material are useful equipment and antenna suggestions that are quite unbiased and written by top-notch satellite ops.

WB2WIK/6

[K3MOV]

Hi Steve.  Thanks for the reply.  Are you sure you don't have a clone?  I don't understand how one guy can be on so many sites at one time, offering such helpful advice.  Not to mention being on the air - we had a QSO about 6 months ago.

I've checked out the AMSAT site.  Lots of good ideas there.  I guess what I'm looking for is equipment that will allow me to work the "easy ones" now, but will allow me to expand in the future.  I had a TS 2000 which I used on HF.  I sold it and kept an ICOM 756 Pro II for HF.

Would I need a current generation rig to work the AO 40 or would a previous generation rig/transverter do just as well?

[WB2WIK]

I'm not an AO-40 expert, but I think its downlink is K band (2.4 GHz), and no rig covers that, so you'll need at the very least a RX downconverter from K-band to something else.  For uplink, there are some rigs that cover the bands (the TS-2000 does have a 23cm option) as they are, but I'm sure lots of people use transverters.

For sat work, which I have not done much of lately, I still use my 1987-vintage Yaesu FT-736R, which seems fairly satellite-worthy even today.  It will transmit on 70cm and 23cm (and receive there, too!) but of course for AO-40 I'd still need a RX downconverter.

Glad to have worked you on the air!  I try to be a little bit active every day, if possible...and still get in about 100 QSOs per week without contests.  I'll look for you again...

73 de Steve, WB2WIK/6